What lies behind us and lies before us are small matters compared to what lies right to our faces.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Without a paddle in me too nation

If I had to guess I'd say that someone was late to the opera and forgot to read the programme. Not wanting to feel separated from the hive, he begins expressing dismay during the happy scenes and joyfully cheering during somber ones. Despite his best effort, he receives jeers and sideways stares from everybody nearby.

Has me too nation forgotten who big brother is? I mean it seems like only yesterday me too nation was swimming upstream against a raging tide to keep up with big brother, and today they're in a rubber dingy with no paddle being carried in the opposite direction down shits creek.

It's probably just that whole 'me too' thing playing out. Me too generally tries to hang with the popular kidz, and saw that big brother was not doing what was popular...

For a change, I don't disagree with a statement made by a politician in this country. But I sincerely question the timing and motivation of the statement. It's a little late to try and save face after voting against Palestine's statehood and losing by a huge margin, and the vacillation only displays a severe breakdown in the democratic process...

I mean, how does anything get done if all our efforts are spent on changing our mind? When do we decide we're done deciding and who got to make that decision? Did the collective groan from the voting public over our horrendously bad decision to vote no at the UN actually change something among our so-called public servants? This is especially contrasted when you put this quick change of heart next to the several weeks it took the Quebec government to decide if they were going to keep a flag in the room.

Just what is the statement we're making here anyway? That people we don't feel deserve a right to exist do have a right not to be bulldozed and bombed out of existence? It's rather oxymoronic to attempt to sit on both sides of that fence, and if this is a sudden change of heart I feel we deserve a public apology from our leaders. It's a simple matter of admitting they made a mistake and trying move on. People do it all the time, politicians can too.

Israel tends to be very clear that we are either behind them one hundred percent or we are anti-Semites. Much of the world's population can see right through that rhetoric and understands that fighting for the human rights of Palestinians doesn't actually mean you are a Jew hater regardless of what Nutty-yahoo says.

This is Canada. We wrote and tabled the original international charter of human rights. If that fact truly is 'a part of our heritage' and not more propaganda the way forward should be crystal clear, and there should never have been a different path which looked like a viable option.